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Playing through all Halos, Thoughts on campaign


lifeexpectancy
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Im currently playing through all the campaigns again as well, in the correct chronological order, Halo Reach/Halo CE/Halo 2/ODST/Halo 3.

 

Personally my fave is still CE, in my opinion they have never really topped the AOTCR level (especially the opening)

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Im currently playing through all the campaigns again as well, in the correct chronological order, Halo Reach/Halo CE/Halo 2/ODST/Halo 3.

 

Personally my fave is still CE, in my opinion they have never really topped the AOTCR level (especially the opening)

 

"Look on the bright-side Foehammer, the last thing the Covenant would expect is an ariel insertion from underground."

 

Grunt proceeds to shit himself. :p

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"Look on the bright-side Foehammer, the last thing the Covenant would expect is an ariel insertion from underground."

 

Grunt proceeds to shit himself. :p

 

loved the grunt shitting himself one of the funnier moments of halo but i cant choose the best they are all too good its a hard decision but one of the worst would be odst just because of the walking around new mombasa other than that they are all good and im sure halo 4 is going to out perform all the others

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I tried playing through Halo 3 again on the weekend prior to getting Halo 4 and I just found it tedious, but it's odd because I know I loved it when it came out all those years ago. It just hasn't aged as well, I don't think.

 

Yet, Halo: CE is still as great as ever. I do have a soft spot for Reach, too, as I feel that even though technically it wasn't all that, the story kind of mattered in that we got to see what paved the way for everything that followed with the Chief. It was kind of inspiring, in a sense.

 

Having played through Halo 4, too. I can factor that into my rankings, though it's still fresh so I might be generous, who knows?

 

Halo: CE, Halo 4, Halo Reach, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: ODST.

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I can't really rank the games. 1-3 are a class all on their own, Reach, Halo Wars and ODST were a blast to play too. Love them all equally and have no trouble going back to play them co-op with friends.

 

It's only when I play them solo that the repetition and tedium of so many replays set in. No banter with buds, no coordinating attacks, no "OH SHIT!!!! I'm down!!! backupbackupbackupbackup!!!!" over the headest...

 

All Halo is bestest with buds. It is tempting to do a Halo series replay run, but this being Halloween week, just don't have the time to spare from life, the universe, and everything ;)

 

I've been holding back on a lot of games over the last year being distracted by BF3. Halo 4 dropping will yank me away from that pretty quick. :woop:

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So I'm in the process of replaying all the Halo campaigns. I finished Halo 1-3, and will be doing ODST and Reach later this week.

 

People often say Halo 1&2 have superior campaigns to Halo 3. I think playing through them back to back has given me new perspective, because I used to say the same thing. Now, though, I would have to say Halo 3 is the best for 1-3. Its pacing, smoothness in transition, and larger-than-life feel is engendering a sense of awe in me that has surpassed 1&2.

 

I'll be curious to see how I feel about ODST & Reach after this, but as it stands I'd rank it 3-1-2 in order of which campaigns have been the best for me on my re-plays. This also gives me high hopes, but trepidation, for Halo 4 to raise the bar again.

 

Not doing Halo Wars? That campaign wasn't too bad.

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In my opinion it would be Wars, CE, 3, Reach, ODST, 2. One thing that always annoys me is people saying the Cheif is the last spartan, he's not I don't remember the exact number but at the end of Wars there were a handful still kicking about, they're just stranded in the assend of space and from what I've heard about the books there a few more although I could be wrong about that since I haven't had time to read them.

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In my opinion it would be Wars, CE, 3, Reach, ODST, 2. One thing that always annoys me is people saying the Cheif is the last spartan, he's not I don't remember the exact number but at the end of Wars there were a handful still kicking about, they're just stranded in the assend of space and from what I've heard about the books there a few more although I could be wrong about that since I haven't had time to read them.

 

In the instruction manual of the first Halo game on Xbox, it mentions him as being "the last Spartan". The idea is SOMEWHAT retconned by sequels and spin-offs since then.

 

Most of his fellow Spartans ARE either dead or MIA somewhere. Sure, they could be alive, but all UNSC official sources have no clue where they are and they've been gone so long that they're simply counted among the dead even if they're listed as MIA. Chief is the last Spartain II that anyone knows of. Perhaps even that HE knows of.

 

But, now we have Spartan IVs... Maybe they count as part of "his kind", but most likely not. Same program, different execution.

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In my opinion it would be Wars, CE, 3, Reach, ODST, 2. One thing that always annoys me is people saying the Cheif is the last spartan, he's not I don't remember the exact number but at the end of Wars there were a handful still kicking about, they're just stranded in the assend of space and from what I've heard about the books there a few more although I could be wrong about that since I haven't had time to read them.

 

You put Halo 2...last?! Blasphemy! You are a disgrace!

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You put Halo 2...last?! Blasphemy! You are a disgrace!

 

To be honest... Halo 2's story pretty much retconned most of Halo CE's actual story as well as turned out to be one very convoluted mess by the end of it.

 

Halo CE: "The Covenant believe Halo is some kind of weapon with deep religious significance." And Keyes chimes in, "yeah, they kept saying that whoever controls the Halo, controls the Galaxy".

 

We get to Halo 2 and then there is ZERO mention of it ever being any kind of weapon, zero mention of controlling it. Just some kind of "Great Journey" that comes clean out of left field and basically ruins all the established canon of the first game.

 

If you want to blame translators... that's fine... But just remember... Do you really think any translator could mix up "great journey" with "big superweapon that can be used to control the galaxy"? I don't.

 

Halo 2 is easily the worst of the franchise in terms of story and what's worse is that it sets the tone for the rest of that arc in which we're fighting religious zealots who won't even believe THEIR ORACLE about what the Halo Array does (which doesn't make any kind of sense no matter how the idiot developers try to justify it). I could buy in Halo 2 that the Prophets MIGHT NOT have known exactly what the Array did... But once they got the Oracle, wouldn't they have figured it out? And Truth, being the massive ego freak that he is... Wouldn't he have went, "you know, our Gods trusted this thing that has vast stores of knowlege, and it tells me that I'd be killing everyone in the galaxy including myself... I think making up a new story to keep the Covenant together would be preferable to mass suicide and in which I actually gain nothing from it". Once we reached that massive plothole, I was done with the Halo story at that point. The utter shite story of Halo began with Halo 2. It was amazing in the first, and then they retconned all the interesting and cool stuff out of the second, and then just rolled with it until the end for... well... whatever reason. Idiocy, I suppose. Halo 2 introduced plotholes so big you could fly High Charity through them and still have room for an entire Armada of Cruisers behind it.

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Halo 2 is easily the worst of the franchise in terms of story and what's worse is that it sets the tone for the rest of that arc in which we're fighting religious zealots who won't even believe THEIR ORACLE about what the Halo Array does. The utter shite story of Halo began with Halo 2. It was amazing in the first, and then they retconned all the interesting and cool stuff out of the second, and then just rolled with it until the end for... well... whatever reason.

 

I don't know man. I think you're being a little too harsh. Out of the core trilogy, Halo 3 had the weakest (not worse, because none were 'bad') story. CE set the foundation, so it's easily ranked second for me and I thought Halo 2 did an excellent job when compared to the other installments. None of us of wrote or contributed to the script, so we don't know what the developers had in mind when creating the story...BUT...this is how I see it:

 

Truth was blind. Even though the 'Holy Oracle' was telling him the 'truth', he didn't believe it for the simple fact that Regret stated when speaking to 2401, "...of all the artifacts our forefathers left behind, none are as useless as these oracles!" So right there, it could show that the Prophets thought the Monitors were simply interfering with their Religious Enlightenment, so to say.

 

Plot-holes: I don't see many. I've played the Campaign over 10 dozen times from beginning to end, from 2004 to 2012, and I still think it's the best in the franchise. It gives you actual antagonists to focus on. In Halo: CE, we were just fighting to find the Covenant's 'secret about Halo' then 'running' from the truth when Cortana/Spark had revealed it. Halo 2 had the audience up against the absurd ideals of 3 corrupt religious leaders, and their loyal servant, Tartarus. Being able to play as Thel (Arbiter) was awesome. I don't know why so many fans hated that. It didn't take away from the Chief's story at all. It added another level of tension and realism to the conflict at hand.

 

Key moments such as Tartarus sending The Arbiter to his 'impending doom', Truth leaving Mercy behind, Chief leaving Cortana behind, Spark exposing the truth to Tartarus, Rtas & The Arbiter's relationship, and the introduction of the Gravemind were amazing. Also, Halo 2 implemented countless mechanics that were successful to the Campaign (Flood Wheelmen, Dual-Weilding, Hi-Jacking, New weapons i.e. Energy Sword, Beam Rifle, Battle Rifle). Needless to say, Halo 2 had some of the best cinematics within the entire series - Prologue, Once Again With Feeling, are my favorite.

 

This is just my opinion. I didn't mean to bash yours - I was just joking around. But I honestly don't know why anyone wouldn't rank Halo 2 towards the top of their list!

Edited by BiggD
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I don't know man. I think you're being a little too harsh. Out of the core trilogy, Halo 3 had the weakest (not worse, because none were 'bad') story. CE set the foundation, so it's easily ranked second for me and I thought Halo 2 did an excellent job when compared to the other installments. None of us of wrote or contributed to the script, so we don't know what the developers had in mind when creating the story...BUT...this is how I see it:

 

Truth was blind. Even though the 'Holy Oracle' was telling him the 'truth', he didn't believe it for the simple fact that Regret stated when speaking to 2401, "...of all the artifacts our forefathers left behind, none are as useless as these oracles!" So right there, it could show that the Prophets thought the Monitors were simply interfering with their Religious Enlightenment, so to say.

 

Plot-holes: I don't see many. I've played the Campaign over 10 dozen times from beginning to end, from 2004 to 2012, and I still think it's the best in the franchise. It gives you actual antagonists to focus on. In Halo: CE, we were just fighting to find the Covenant's 'secret about Halo' then 'running' from the truth when Cortana/Spark had revealed it. Halo 2 had the audience up against the absurd ideals of 3 corrupt religious leaders, and their loyal servant, Tartarus. Being able to play as Thel (Arbiter) was awesome. I don't know why so many fans hated that. It didn't take away from the Chief's story at all. It added another level of tension and realism to the conflict at hand.

 

Key moments such as Tartarus sending The Arbiter to his 'impending doom', Truth leaving Mercy behind, Chief leaving Cortana behind, Spark exposing the truth to Tartarus, Rtas & The Arbiter's relationship, and the introduction of the Gravemind were amazing. Also, Halo 2 implemented countless mechanics that were successful to the Campaign (Flood Wheelmen, Dual-Weilding, Hi-Jacking, New weapons i.e. Energy Sword, Beam Rifle, Battle Rifle). Needless to say, Halo 2 had some of the best cinematics within the entire series - Prologue, Once Again With Feeling, are my favorite.

 

This is just my opinion. I didn't mean to bash yours - I was just joking around. But I honestly don't know why anyone wouldn't rank Halo 2 towards the top of their list!

 

My issue with the whole "believing the monitor" thing stems from every basic religion ever. The Prophets basically ignoring what Guilty Spark had to say is literally akin to any other religion having their God talk to them, in person, and then sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming "la la la" at the top of their lungs. Why WOULDN'T you believe the Oracles? They are regarded as basically the Prophets of the Forerunners. They are sought after so that they can "learn the way". Yet, they get one and go, "nah, they're useless and nothing they say is truth" and then go about simply ignoring them?

 

You see where I'm having issue with this? The Covenant, at heart, are religious zealots. Why would they doubt what is essentially their version of a prophet of their lords? Especially when they've been looking for one for quite some time?

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As long as he doesn't put Halo 4 at the bottom of his list next week...

 

Hahah, very true. Halo 4 will DEFINITELY be ranked as first.

 

My issue with the whole "believing the monitor" thing stems from every basic religion ever. The Prophets basically ignoring what Guilty Spark had to say is literally akin to any other religion having their God talk to them, in person, and then sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming "la la la" at the top of their lungs. Why WOULDN'T you believe the Oracles? They are regarded as basically the Prophets of the Forerunners. They are sought after so that they can "learn the way". Yet, they get one and go, "nah, they're useless and nothing they say is truth" and then go about simply ignoring them?

 

You see where I'm having issue with this? The Covenant, at heart, are religious zealots. Why would they doubt what is essentially their version of a prophet of their lords? Especially when they've been looking for one for quite some time?

 

I understand your frustration towards the attitude and blindness of the Covenant, but like I said, I'm sure the writers crafted it this way purposely to show the religious imbalance and imperfection that was ironically floating around these significant Hierarchs.

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Hahah, very true. Halo 4 will DEFINITELY be ranked as first.

 

 

 

I understand your frustration towards the attitude and blindness of the Covenant, but like I said, I'm sure the writers crafted it this way purposely to show the religious imbalance and imperfection that was ironically floating around these significant Hierarchs.

 

That would've been easy to show off without the whole "Let's all just commit mass suicide ANYWAY, even though we've been told by the Forerunners THEMSELVES that that's what we're doing!"

 

I'm not even kidding. They could've shown off the corruption and blindness by simply having them ALTER what was happening. They already did it once by basically saying that Humanity were "heretics" because knowing that they were Reclaimers would destroy the Covenant. It would have been relatively EASY to say that the Humans had corrupted the true intent of the rings and now the rings would KILL THE ENTIRE GALAXY if fired. Tell everyone that the Prophets needed more time to "fix" what the humans had done, and in the meantime, they should wipe out the humans for their heresy.

 

See? Not even a storyboarding artist and already I've got a better plot element than Halo 2 offered. Oh, and yeah, just fixed the massive plothole too.

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That would've been easy to show off without the whole "Let's all just commit mass suicide ANYWAY, even though we've been told by the Forerunners THEMSELVES that that's what we're doing!"

 

I'm not even kidding. They could've shown off the corruption and blindness by simply having them ALTER what was happening. They already did it once by basically saying that Humanity were "heretics" because knowing that they were Reclaimers would destroy the Covenant. It would have been relatively EASY to say that the Humans had corrupted the true intent of the rings and now the rings would KILL THE ENTIRE GALAXY if fired. Tell everyone that the Prophets needed more time to "fix" what the humans had done, and in the meantime, they should wipe out the humans for their heresy.

 

See? Not even a storyboarding artist and already I've got a better plot element than Halo 2 offered. Oh, and yeah, just fixed the massive plothole too.

 

Alright. I'm done trying to convince you that Halo 2 was good. You're close minded and won't even try to have a clear mind when considering the facts I present you with. You don't work for Bungie/343i, so you know nothing of script-writting for a franchise. Don't expect me to answer after this post.

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100% Agree.

 

When I read online that the reason the 'Arbiter levels' were cut from the game because fans didn't like that - I though to myself...are you serious? I loved that aspect of Halo 2. Halo 3's campaign was, like you said underwhelming, unfortunately :(

 

I loved that you could play as the Arbiter. It was one of the reasons I loved Halo 2 so much. And the guy talking about all the plot holes in Halo 2 and how it was so subpar and terrible...ummm I don't know what you are talking about. It seems like your whole problem with the 'plot holes' are that the Prophets dont think the way you think they should....just because they don't reason the way you think they should doesnt mean its a plot hole. It could be that the writers of Halo 2 just wanted them to see irrational and crazy...

 

I am super pumped for Halo 4...especially after seeing all the great reviews it is getting.

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I loved that you could play as the Arbiter. It was one of the reasons I loved Halo 2 so much. And the guy talking about all the plot holes in Halo 2 and how it was so subpar and terrible...ummm I don't know what you are talking about. It seems like your whole problem with the 'plot holes' are that the Prophets dont think the way you think they should....just because they don't reason the way you think they should doesnt mean its a plot hole. It could be that the writers of Halo 2 just wanted them to see irrational and crazy...

 

I am super pumped for Halo 4...especially after seeing all the great reviews it is getting.

 

Thank the Lord someone agrees with me. Once again, thank you! This dude is just 'mad' because Halo 2 didn't fall under his expectations. Fuck your expectations. Halo 2 was great.

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I also want to say I am not bashing Taj_MT that was saying his opinion on Halo 2. It is his opinion and he is entitled to it. I have no problem with that at all!!

 

Just like some people say Call of Duty is better than Halo series....I mean technically there is no right answer since it is someone's opinion (but we alllll know Halo is better)

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You put Halo 2...last?! Blasphemy! You are a disgrace!

 

I wasn't a big fan of all the walking and more walking, that's the main thing I remember, I liked the game, it just had some boring parts for me. I haven't played it in a while I might like it more now. I was quite a bit younger last time I played it.

 

@Lemons the only way 4 would be at the bottom would be if it was horrible which I have no doubt it won't be.

Edited by KillerChris8814
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Alright. I'm done trying to convince you that Halo 2 was good. You're close minded and won't even try to have a clear mind when considering the facts I present you with. You don't work for Bungie/343i, so you know nothing of script-writting for a franchise. Don't expect me to answer after this post.

 

I am having a clear mind, you're the one effectively closing yours off. "What they did was excellent in every possible way! There's no way it could've been better!" I'm sorry, it could've been better. I highlighted ONE instance in which it could've been fixed.

 

I do not HATE Halo 2. I loved the multiplayer until the appearance of all the exploiters. I played Halo 2 for a long time, logging something like 25,000 games in it. I didn't have very high expectations for the game, at least... Not in the way you're thinking.

 

I was excited for a sequel, I was looking forward to seeing where the story was going next.

 

After playing the game, however... I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth. It was simply that the Campaign wasn't as good as the original. No memorable music (except that one song! YOU ALL KNOW WHICH ONE, AND THAT FIGHT WAS AMAZING!). No memorable dialogue (Well, except for Johnson talking about Regret... It's apparantly downhill from there since I can't really recall anything awesome about it since then... I remember more dialogue from Halo 3 than Halo 2... That should say something). The encounters were a bit lackluster... Especially when we started fighting the Brutes (which they thankfully made more interesting in Halo 3). After realizing that they essentially created a broken and unfinished game in 1 year when they had three... I was righterously indignant about them pissing two years of dev time down their legs out of laziness.

 

The campaign was relatively mediocre and lacking in a LOT of places. The multiplayer was amazing though.

 

I don't hate Halo 2, I just think the campaign was the worst of them all and it proceeded to destroy the storyline of the games that followed.

 

If you don't actually want to discuss it like human beings, that's fine. But, trying to discredit me as a HUMAN BEING instead of what I've SAID is the lowest of the low. It's what the close-minded do. It's what the stupid do. They do it to shut you up instead of having to actually participate in an argument of ideas.

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Alright. I'm done trying to convince you that Halo 2 was good. You're close minded and won't even try to have a clear mind when considering the facts I present you with. You don't work for Bungie/343i, so you know nothing of script-writting for a franchise. Don't expect me to answer after this post.

 

I don't want to jump into the middle of this but it seems you are trying to convince us that your opinion is right, it has nothing to do with 'facts.'

 

I personally liked Halo 2's story (with the exception of the ending) as it gave an insight into the Covenant and revealed aspects that we wouldn't have known if we had been playing as the Chief the whole time. Overall i found the story of Halo 2 to be the worst but i still enjoyed it and played through it more times than i can remember.

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I am having a clear mind, you're the one effectively closing yours off. "What they did was excellent in every possible way! There's no way it could've been better!" I'm sorry, it could've been better. I highlighted ONE instance in which it could've been fixed.

 

I was excited for a sequel, I was looking forward to seeing where the story was going next.

 

After playing the game, however... I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth. It was simply that the Campaign wasn't as good as the original. No memorable music (except that one song! YOU ALL KNOW WHICH ONE, AND THAT FIGHT WAS AMAZING!). No memorable dialogue (I remember more dialogue from Halo 3 than Halo 2... That should say something). The encounters were a bit lackluster... Especially when we started fighting the Brutes (which they thankfully made more interesting in Halo 3). After realizing that they essentially created a broken and unfinished game in 1 year when they had three... I was righterously indignant about them pissing two years of dev time down their legs out of laziness.

 

I don't hate Halo 2, I just think the campaign was the worst of them all and it proceeded to destroy the storyline of the games that followed.

 

I love debating, so I'm not disrespecting you. You have my respect, from one fan to another. I just deeply disagree with you on your views on Halo 2's Campaign. The reason I think Halo 3's was the weakest was because they replaced two important voice actors which, for me, took away from their character's performances. That, and they began killing off everyone...not that I didn't mind that - however, it was the manner in which these characters died that bothered me. Miranda should have no died from a Spiker. She's more important than that, seriously! Johnson survives the events of Halo: CE only to have Spark burst a beam towards him? Again, lame.

 

Also, I disagree with the Soundtrack arguement you present. Halo 2's Volume 2 had THE BEST TRACKS ON IT! Delta Halo Suite, High Charity Suite, Reclaimer, Prologue! :) I still listen to them this day.

 

I have annoyingly really good memory so I remember literally every bit of dialogue from all the games, lol. But I love the dialogue from Halo 3 as you do. Not that I don't love Halo 2's, I just think 3 had a better script for the dialogue. The cinematics in 2 were more powerful though. If that makes any sense.

 

As for the encounters, I still think that Halo 2 had some pretty solid ones, especially while playing as The Arbiter and having a group of Elites at your side, and my favorite character, Rtas.

 

Sorry to storm off before, I was just getting steamed at the ignorance I had that someone wouldn't share the same opinion as me. Do not think me a fool, you have my respect.

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